


Midnight Tradition

by ScribbleTheCalico



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Birthday, Birthday Fluff, Cuddling & Snuggling, Fluff, M/M, Mild Language, Sleepy Cuddles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-01
Updated: 2015-10-01
Packaged: 2018-04-24 05:45:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,289
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4907674
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ScribbleTheCalico/pseuds/ScribbleTheCalico
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jack always wants to be the first person to wish Daniel a happy birthday, and he doesn't care how obnoxious he is doing it.</p><p>Takes place at midnight on Daniel's birthday across multiple years.</p><p>(T rating is for slight language only).</p>
            </blockquote>





	Midnight Tradition

**Author's Note:**

> I take a break from writing Jack/Daniel angst to writing Jack/Daniel fluff. Don't worry--The Death of Doctor Jackson will be updated soon. In the meantime, enjoy some free snuggles.
> 
> This is inspired by what my brother Matthew does on my birthday--the first two sections are almost exactly what happened on my fourteenth and fifteenth birthdays. Obviously, everything after that would be super uncomfortable if my brother and I did it...

** 1998 **

Daniel couldn’t remember the last time his bed had felt so comfortable. He had driven himself home less than an hour ago, exhausted beyond belief after he and the rest of SG-1 had narrowly escaped some Jaffa on P2X-033, and had barely managed to kick off his shoes before collapsing gratefully into bed. It felt so nice to just relax into sleep, revel in the beautiful silence of his apartment…

The bedroom door burst open, and bless his heart, Daniel actually screamed. “Happy birthday!” a delighted voice crowed.

“What the hell, Jack!?” Daniel yelled, his heart pounding. Being jolted awake by an obnoxiously peppy Air Force colonel put him in a truly foul mood.

“Jack,” Daniel began testily, “what the _fuck_ are you doing in my bedroom?”

Jack gave him a sly grin. “I’m saying happy birthday.”

“Uh-huh. And why are you doing that at—what time is it—12:01 AM?”

“Actually, I did it at midnight on the dot.”

Daniel did his best to channel all of his tiredness and grumpiness into one syllable: “Why?”

“So I could be the first person to say it,” Jack replied, as though that were the most obvious thing in the world.

Daniel groaned, pulling the covers up over his face. “Okay. You’ve said it. Now get out of my apartment.”

“Aw, come on. You don’t want to open presents? Eat cake? Make a wish?”

“No, Jack. I want to sleep.” Daniel pulled the covers back down to fix Jack with his best death glare. “This is why I’m lying in my bed, under the covers, with the lights out. Now leave before I throw something at you.”

“You’re no fun,” Jack said with a yawn. “Can I crash on your couch?”

“No,” Daniel answered immediately, but relented upon seeing Jack yawn again. “Fine. But I don’t want to hear a sound from you until at least eleven.”

“Great. Thanks.”

Jack turned to leave, but only made it two steps before Daniel grumbled “Close the door!” after him.

“Good night, Daniel,” Jack said in a mock sweet voice before pulling the door shut. Daniel didn’t bother to respond, only rolled to bury his face in the pillow and groan, mentally asking every deity he could think of why he had been cursed with a twelve-year-old for a team leader.

 

** 1999 **

Daniel plopped down onto his bed with a soft sigh. He had been up for nearly forty-eight hours straight, waiting in the Gate Room for any translations from SG-6. They had been caught in a tricky diplomatic situation, but once Daniel figured out the issue, they returned safely home. Afterwards, Sam had very kindly offered to drive Daniel home.

Recalling the date, Daniel breathed a sigh of relief. Jack had caught some kind of alien bug, and though he would be fine, Janet had him on base for the next twenty-four hours. There would no bursting into his room at midnight this year. Warily, Daniel opened an eye to check the clock. Ha. It was 12:00. He was safe.

Daniel had just made himself a little burrow out of his blankets and was getting comfortably warm when his phone rang.

_Oh God. He found a way._

The second ring echoed through the apartment. Daniel crammed a pillow down over his head and just waited it out. Finally, the generic “leave a message” recording that he had never bothered to personalize took over, and moments later, Jack’s sarcastic, off-key singing assaulted his ears.

“Happy birthday to you…happy birthday to you…happy birthday dear _Daaaannnieellll……_ happy birthday to you…”

Mercifully, that was all that the voicemail entailed, and Daniel was left in a wonderful silence. Removing the pillow from his head, Daniel began plotting Jack’s murder as he drifted off to sleep.

 

** 2001 **

Daniel slowly drifted awake as he felt the mattress shifting, but he didn’t open his eyes—he knew that it was just Jack. Though their romantic relationship had only begun a few months ago, Daniel already knew that his favorite part was coming home to Jack at the end of a long day and falling asleep next to him in the same bed.

Unless, of course, Jack was rolling him over, forcing him to wake up, at precisely midnight. _Damn it, not again._

“Don’t you fucking dare,” Daniel mumbled as Jack maneuvered him onto his back.

But Jack would not be deterred. “Happy birthday,” he whispered, before planting a shower of light kisses all over Daniel’s face.

“No. Stop. Go away,” Daniel grumbled out, his half-hearted attempts to push Jack away ending up more like caresses. Jack finished his little love assault with a final peck against Daniel’s lips, then rolled back to his own side of the bed. After a moment, Daniel rolled, too, cuddling up close to him and sprawling an arm out across his chest.

“You suck,” he mumbled into Jack’s neck.

Jack wrapped his arms around Daniel and planted a kiss into his hair. “You love me anyway.”

“Mm,” Daniel agreed. “Shut up.”

“Okay, Daniel,” Jack replied, stroking Daniel’s hair. “Whatever you want. It’s your birthday, after all.”

“You’re damn right it is,” was the last thing Daniel could remember saying before he fell asleep again, safe in the warmth of Jack’s embrace.

 

** 2002 **

Jack sat alone in Daniel’s kitchen, staring at the clock. It was midnight. For the past four years, he had always found some way to pester Daniel for his birthday. But this year was different. This year, Daniel wasn’t here to bother.

Sure, he was out there, somewhere, living on as a glowy space squid. But he wasn’t here in Jack’s arms, and that was what truly mattered. So here Jack sat, just him, a beer bottle, and the silence.

He jumped a little when the message alert on Daniel’s phone suddenly beeped. It was a small sound, but it seemed inappropriately loud in the quiet. _What the hell? Did that just turn on by itself?_

Slightly wary, Jack rose unsteadily, walked over to the landline, and pressed the play button. To his surprise, his own voice filled the room.

_“Happy birthday to you…happy birthday to you…happy birthday dear Daaaannnieellll……happy birthday to you…”_

“You never deleted it,” Jack whispered, and for a moment he could have sworn that he felt a slight breeze ruffling his hair.

 

** 2003 **

Jack settled into his bed, uncomfortably aware that midnight was only ten minutes away. It was the night before Daniel’s birthday, and however much he wanted to drive over to his apartment just to annoy him for a few minutes, as was tradition, he knew that it was a bad idea. Though Daniel had returned from Oma-land and remembered enough to interact with his friends and the rest of society in a normal fashion, he didn’t remember his special relationship with Jack. In fact, it almost seemed as if Daniel remembered Jack that least of all—sometimes little more than his name and rank. Yeah. Flinging open his door to yell at him—the way he had five years ago, and he would never forget Daniel’s little scream of terror—probably wasn’t the best plan.

So, Jack just tossed and turned, trying to fall asleep and failing. His troubled thoughts simply wouldn’t shut up and he ended up staring miserably at his clock, watching the minutes pass by.

Midnight arrived, and Jack heard his bedroom door open.

Alarmed, Jack sat up quickly to see who it was. “Daniel?”

Daniel just stared at him. “I remember,” he said quietly.

“Huh?”

“I remember,” Daniel repeated, stepping lightly across the room to sit on the edge of Jack’s bed.

“Oh!” Jack’s brain finally caught up with the rest of him. “The happy birthday at midnight thing. I don’t know why you’re here, Danny, I was actually going to leave you alone for once…”

“No,” Daniel said, “not that. Though I do remember that, and that still needs to stop. No, I was talking about this.” And with that, Daniel leaned forward and pressed his lips to Jack’s.

Joy blossomed in Jack’s heart, and he eagerly kissed Daniel back, reaching up to hold his face. After a moment, Daniel needed to pull away for breath, and Jack took that opportunity to pull Daniel down onto the bed and roll them to put the other man underneath him, pressing their foreheads together.

“So, Doctor Jackson,” he asked, “what do you want for your birthday?”

Daniel grinned. “I just got it.”

Jack’s whole face lit up. “Happy birthday, Danny,” he whispered, before kissing his archaeologist like there was no tomorrow.

 

** 2005 **

Daniel wasn’t asleep. He was pretending to be, but Jack knew a faker when he heard one.

More than anything, Jack wanted to roll over to Daniel and cuddle, but they were offworld, lying side by side in a tent—Carter or Teal’c could catch them in the morning, and that was embarrassment that Jack very much wanted to avoid. So Jack just settled for shifting onto his side, bringing him face-to-face with Daniel. He checked the time. Bingo.

As Jack glanced down to his watch, Daniel cracked an eye open. The moment Jack turned back to him, he snapped it shut again. _Aha. You, Danny-boy, are most definitely faking._

With a mischievous grin in his eyes, Jack pursed his lips and just started whistling. _Happy birthday to you…happy birthday to you…_

Daniel sighed. “Just get it over with,” he muttered, his eyes still closed.

Smiling, Jack leaned forward and lightly pressed his lips to Daniel’s. “Happy birthday. I love you,” he whispered.

“Thank you,” Daniel mumbled. “Can I sleep now?”

“Mm,” Jack agreed, running a knuckle gently down Daniel’s face. He received a very soft happy sigh in return. Daniel would never admit it, but Jack knew that he actually looked forward to his birthday midnight tradition.

If Jack looked at Daniel much longer, the urge to cuddle would soon become overpowering, so he forced himself to flop over onto his other side. Just before he nodded off, he could have sworn that he heard Daniel humming the last two lines of _Happy Birthday…_

 

** 2008 **

_“Fly me to the moon…”_

Daniel jerked awake with a grunt as his cellphone rang, filling the bedroom with sound of Sinatra—his ringtone for Jack. Only half-awake, Daniel fumbled at his bedside table for the phone. “...’lo?” he managed.

“Happy birthday…”

“Aw, hell.”

Jack chuckled a little on the other end of the line. “Wow, you love the sound of my voice that much? I’m touched.”

“No, I just forgot the date,” Daniel told him, flopping back onto his pillow. “Otherwise I wouldn’t have answered.”

“Yeah, why _don’t_ you ever answer?”

“Don’t want to give you the satisfaction.”

Daniel could practically see Jack’s Cheshire Cat grin as he spoke. “So it’s not because you like to listen to the voicemails later?”

“No comment,” Daniel replied, although that was exactly the reason. “God, Jack, it’s what…a two hour difference for here and D.C.?”

“Yeah…”

“So you stayed up until two in the morning just to pester me on the phone?”

A slight pause, and then, “No.”

Daniel blinked. “It’s not…? Where are you?”

There was no response, but the line went dead. Daniel sat up, bewildered…until his bedroom door creaked open.

“Jack—!” was all Daniel managed before the other man had crossed the room and was kissing the living daylights out of him. Daniel felt the phone slip out of his hand as he enthusiastically responded, grabbing onto Jack’s face and shoulders.

Jack, meanwhile, was exhausted. He had barely slept the night before, and done a full day of work, boarded a plane, and taken a cab to Daniel’s house—but it was all worth it just to hear the happy little noises of surprise that Daniel was currently making into his mouth. Smiling, but refusing to break the kiss, Jack let himself sink down onto Daniel, pressing him into the mattress and letting his fingers muss up the other man’s hair. Daniel didn’t seem to mind, if the hands running through his hair and down his back were any indication.

Eventually, they both needed to breathe. Jack reluctantly pulled away and immediately nuzzled into his lover’s neck. “Hi, Daniel,” he murmured.

“Hi,” Daniel responded, apparently in a bit of a daze. “You flew all the way from D.C. just to do that?”

“Perks of being a general.”

“I love you,” Daniel said, and Jack kissed the side of his neck. Daniel didn’t say those words often, and every time he did, Jack felt like his heart was singing the high note of that Josh Groban song.

They lay there in the silence for a moment, just listening to each other breathe, feeling each other’s heartbeats. Then Daniel spoke again. “Uh, Jack?”

“Mm?”

“I still love you, but…you’re squashing me.”

With a joking grumble, Jack rolled off of Daniel, but pulled the younger man with him so they were both on their sides. A yawn escaped from him, and Daniel gasped a little bit. “Have you slept at all since last night?”

“No,” Jack mumbled, burrowing his face into Daniel’s chest and neck.

Daniel sighed, lightly stroking Jack’s hair. “You’re hopeless.”

“I’m taking you to lunch tomorrow,” Jack informed Daniel, a bit randomly.

“Sure, Jack. I’d like that.”

“Good. Cause that’s what we’re doing.”

“Okay.”

“Good.”

“Go to sleep, Jack.”

“Okay. You too.”

“Okay.”

“Okay.”

They kept mumbling stupidly to each other for a few more minutes until Jack drifted off, dreamily content to be snuggled up with his lover. And as Daniel joined him in sleep, he decided that maybe his birthday was his favorite day of the year after all.

**Author's Note:**

> The Josh Groban song I was referring to was "When You Say You Love Me." Look it up.
> 
> Cat, the Fly Me to the Moon ringtone was just for you :)


End file.
